Who will cause the most, long lasting damage to your car - the person who bumps it or the chimp repairing it?

When it comes to having bodywork damage repaired, you’d think that your insurer would instantly direct you to the most competent, professional repairer and certainly the one that will repair your car without compromising the bodywork warranty.....wouldn’t you?

Wrong! If you don’t know your rights and you don’t insist on your chosen repairer, they will simply place your car with a repairer where they can negotiate the largest cost savings, irrespective of the repair quality.

You can tell what sort of a repairer the insurer wants you to use by looking at the repairer website....Have they got lots of insurance company contracts meaning they don’t have to worry about good customer care, because there’s a constant flow of work being directed to them or have they got mainly manufacturer approvals, meaning that they are specialised repairers, which is surely more indicative of the quality of the repair that they produce?

To persuade you to use budget repairers, insurers will tell you .......

You have to use their preferred repair network. You don’t have any choice. Wrong!

If you don’t, getting the repairs authorised will take forever because the car will have to be inspected and their engineer won’t be in the area for ages. Wrong!

If you don’t, you won’t get a courtesy car. Wrong!

They cannot guarantee the repair, or assist in a dispute with your own repairer. Wrong!

Don’t forget it is your property that has been damaged, not your insurers. You paid a lot of money for it and then you paid good money to insure it so that, in the event of any damage you can be sure that it will be repaired properly. You have the legal right to choose your repairer. If you experience any problems and are unsure of what you can or can’t do or simply would like any advice, please ring Reynolds’ or contact the insurance ombudsman on 0800 023 4567.